by Bethany-Kris
“Eve,” Adriano said, his hand tightening around his sister’s again.
What was up with her?
Evelina glanced between her father and her friend like she didn’t know what to do. Adriano knew right then what the problem was. The last time Evelina had made an attempt to see Lily, Riley had nearly beaten her.
And now, there he was, standing at the door with Lily.
Adriano dropped his sister’s hand and stood to greet their unexpected guests. “Hey.”
“Son.” Riley waved at Lily as he said, “Her husband is hanging around somewhere and I’ve agreed to a short meeting between the two. As a favor to Dino, of course. He asked before his unfortunate death and I’m not one to refuse the wishes of a dead man.”
Lily flinched, anger heating her gaze. It faded fast, but Adriano had still seen it all the same.
“Thanks,” Lily said, avoiding looking at Riley with all her tiny might.
Adriano gave his sister a quick hug. “I’ll be back. All right?”
Evelina smiled. “Okay.”
“Let’s take a walk, Adriano,” Riley said.
Adriano followed his father out of the room, closing the door behind them.
But not before he heard Lily say, “Your father is an asshole.”
Riley either hadn’t heard or ignored the comment. Adriano chose not to ask. He didn’t entirely disagree with Lily’s statement.
“Damian Rossi is around somewhere,” Riley murmured, surveying the quiet hospital hall.
“So you said.”
“Then you know to be careful of your words.”
Adriano nodded. “Sure.”
“You skipped out of dinner last night.”
“Had work at the docks,” Adriano lied.
Well, half-lied. Adriano needed time to think after the things he learned from Alessa. He used the docks as an excuse to get away from his father for a while.
“You’ve been avoiding me since the bombing at the church,” Riley said.
“I have not.”
“You have. Ask, Adriano.”
Adriano’s confusion climbed higher. “Ask what?”
“If I set the bomb. Everyone else is too frightened to ask. I think they believe they’ll be next.”
“Do you blame them?”
Riley smirked wickedly. “No, but it works out well to my favor. Ask.”
“I don’t have to,” Adriano said.
“Oh?”
“No.”
“Why is that, son?” Riley asked, his hand coming up to clasp Adriano’s shoulder and stop him from going further. “What do you know that I don’t?”
A lot.
Adriano chose to tell what would benefit his father.
“Joel did it,” Adriano said. “He’s also seriously considering making Dean after the upcoming sit-down to help him avoid punishment for what he did.”
Riley’s expression remained passive. “Is that so?”
“Yes.”
“I wondered because I sure as hell didn’t kill Dino. That little … bastard.”
Adriano met his father’s gaze head-on. “Aren’t you going to question me now?”
“On where you got your information?” Riley asked.
“Yes.”
Riley laughed. “Oh, son. I don’t have to. Your heart talks louder than your brain does.”
Adriano didn’t know what to make of that. “It helps you.”
Didn’t it?
“Maybe so, but in the end, I doubt it will help you, Adriano. This is a lesson you’re clearly going to have to learn the hard way, my boy.”
CHAPTER TEN
“Mom wants us over there for supper in a little while.”
Alessa kept digging through the boxes that someone had carelessly tossed into her old bedroom at the Trentini mansion. “Why?”
“Welcome home or something,” Abriella said, sounding entirely bored already.
“Yay.” Alessa didn’t bother to hide the sarcasm coating her tone. “Because we’re so glad to be back.”
Abriella laughed lightly. “Try to make that sound good for Mom and Dad at least.”
Alessa couldn’t promise that. Despite giving his sisters until Friday to move home, Joel had men waiting to pack the apartment up that morning. Their apartment was torn apart, shoved into boxes, and shuffled away until all that was left were white walls and bare floors.
“Damn,” Alessa muttered, pulling out a silk dress from one of the many boxes. “Look at this.”
Abriella glanced over the snagged side of the dress. “What did they do, shove it in there with the fucking hanger on it?”
“Apparently. It’s ruined, like half of the rest of this stuff.” More annoyed than ever, Alessa dropped the dress back into the box. “Dinner, you said?”
“In their wing,” Abriella confirmed. “Without Joel.”
“Thank God.”
“Only because he’s got stuff to do tonight, I guess.”
Whatever. Alessa would take it. A night off from their brother was better than nothing.
Abriella eyed Alessa’s mess. “Are you good in here?”
“As good as I’ll ever be,” Alessa replied.
For now …
“Okay. I’m going to go do something,” Abriella said.
“Lock the door on your way out,” Alessa told her sister.
Once her sister was gone, Alessa flung her body back on the bed and sighed loudly. Alessa hadn’t even gotten the time to process one change in her life before another one was coming around to bite her. The privacy and independence she had by living away from the Trentini mansion had been ripped away in a few hours.
Just like that.
Gone.
Alessa felt suffocated already.
Glancing to the side at the pile of boxes lining the wall, Alessa frowned. She had too much to do and no desire to do it. The buzz in her pocket broke her daze. Alessa pulled out her phone and typed in her pin to check the message.
Phone is fixed.
That was all the text read. But the words along with the recognizable number was more than enough to know who the message came from.
Alessa couldn’t help the smile forming as she typed back, Good to know.
A call rang through just as Alessa hit send on the text. She picked the call up instantly.
“Hey.”
Adriano’s deep timber greeted her in the most familiar way, “Hey.”
“Adriano, you need to go grocery shopping,” Alessa heard in the background of the call.
Evelina.
It was good to know Evelina had finally made it out of the hospital safe and sound. Asking anyone about Evelina’s condition after the bombing only led to side-eyes and disgusted grunts. As if Alessa should know better than to ask.
“Would you quit your bitching, Eve? Christ, you’ve only been here for two hours and already I need new sheets and my dresser is a mess. Now it’s the fucking kitchen. What next? I love you but stop it. I am not your pet project.”
“Until I have something better to do, yes, you are,” Evelina replied sweetly.
Evelina’s happy response made Alessa laugh.
The sound of a door closing echoed through the phone.
“Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea,” Adriano said faintly.
Alessa’s heart dropped. “Calling me?”
“What? No!” Adriano chuckled loudly. “God, no, Lissa. I meant having Eve here at my place for a while.”
“When did that happen?”
“Today. I convinced Dad that she would be one less person he would need to worry about. I wanted to give Eve a break in the process.”
“She’s been through a lot the last couple of days,” Alessa said.
They all had, really.
“Yeah, she has,” Adriano agreed. “She knows, by the way.”
“About what?”
“Us.”
Alessa bit her inner cheek. “Oh?”
“Yeah. She’s entirely for this. Me a
nd you. She’s also crazy but whatever. Surprising, I think.”
“Not really. Eve hangs around with Abriella—” Or they used to before the mess with the Outfit started. “—so she’s not entirely innocent to the game, Adriano.”
“I’m aware of what my sister does … or did. The fact remains, she was really angry at first about Mom. Angry with your family, I mean. I just figured she would be more like Dad and lean to his side of things.”
“Maybe not everyone in this whole thing is as ruined as you believe they are, Adriano.”
Adriano snorted. “By the end of it, I bet they will be.”
“Silver linings. Find one and color it blue, Adriano. Blue is prettier to look at than a shiny gray.”
“I love the way you think, Alessa. And blue is always nicer when you’re wearing it.”
Alessa grinned and buried her face in the pillow to muffle the low moan building in her chest. Just the sound of his voice was enough to set her on edge and promise something wicked. Memories of the day before when he’d bent her over the sink and ate her pussy like he was a starved man flew into her mind. She could still feel his languid laps at her pussy lips before he’d attacked her clit in a way that made her nerves sing. A pulse started to throb between her thighs and Alessa rubbed her legs together in an effort to soothe the ache.
It did nothing.
Nothing but Adriano ever helped with that little problem.
“Fuck, stop, Adriano.”
“Stop what, Lissa?”
“You know what.”
His chuckles rocked her to the core. “What are you wearing today?”
“Stuff.”
She wasn’t doing this with him. Not right now and not right there.
Uh-uh.
It wasn’t going to happen.
“Anything blue?” Adriano asked, his tone dripping with sex and sin.
“Jeans,” Alessa said, unable to stop herself.
“Skinny?”
“Tight as fuck.”
Adriano groaned. “Just the way I like.”
“Stop it.”
“I can’t. I miss you.” Adriano sucked in a harsh breath, adding, “And you left me hard yesterday, Lissa. So hard I couldn’t fucking think. For the rest of the day, the only thing I could taste was your come in my mouth. I could still fucking smell you on my hands, okay? That’s what you left me with. I had to take care of that alone and it did nothing. Talk to me.”
Alessa whined under her breath and turned on the bed so her back was to the mattress. “You don’t play fair.”
“I never have, babe.”
He broke her resolve just like that.
“Blue jeans, a band tee and—”
“Which one?” Adriano interrupted.
“Metallica. From one of their old tours, not the new ones.”
“Because they played better when they were high,” Adriano said.
Alessa laughed. “So you always say.”
“I got you that shirt.”
“Never told me where,” she whispered.
“A thrift place, actually. It was encased in this shadow box because it was signed.”
Alessa glanced down at the black T-shirt, void of any signatures. “There’s never been a signature on it.”
Adriano hummed lowly. “Because when I took it out of the box, it smelled funky. Like it’d been sitting too long. I wanted to see you wear it, not hang it up on the wall. I washed it—it was just pen ink on the white letters. It came out.”
“Damn.”
“You still wore it.”
“I still do,” Alessa replied, smiling wide.
“Where are you?”
Alessa was brought back into the present with a bang. “At the mansion. We moved out of the apartment this morning.”
“Good to know,” Adriano replied. “But that’s not what I meant.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah. Where in the fucking mansion?”
“Bedroom.”
“Yours?” he asked.
“Of course.”
“God does love me. Tell me what is underneath that shirt, Lissa.”
“Black bra, satin with lace trim.”
“Matching panties?”
“Thong, actually,” she replied. “These jeans are too tight for lines, Adriano.”
“Goddamn. Painted on?”
“Might as well be.”
“Fucking hell.”
Something heady and delicious heated his tone. Alessa couldn’t help herself—the damn bedroom door was locked and she had the entire floor of the wing to herself, basically.
Apparently Adriano wasn’t waiting on Alessa to get her mind in the game. “Hurry up and get your hands down your pants, pretty girl. I want to know how wet you are right now, how you feel under your fingertips and then I want to see if the sound of my voice can make you come.”
“Yes,” Alessa said instantly.
“Hmm?”
“There’s no wondering about it. I know it can.”
Adriano laughed. “Hurry, Lissa.”
Alessa worked the button open and unzipped the zipper. She hadn’t lied. Her skinny jeans were tight, so she pushed them down until she could kick them off.
“Talk to me,” she demanded playfully. “Or I’ll hang up the phone.”
“Don’t you fucking dare. That would give me just the reason I need to come over there, Lissa.”
Alessa stilled on the bed. Rough, callous, and crude. Adriano was usually well-spoken, although she’d witnessed his temper come out a time or two on other people. She decided to poke his bear a little more. “Then you better talk.”
“Spread your legs wide,” he ordered. “Feel yourself through the lace, babe.”
She did as he asked, jolting the moment her fingertips grazed over her lace covered sex. The thong did nothing to protect the sensitive, tender flesh from her touch. She was wet already and soaking through the panties.
“Tell me what that feels like, Lissa.”
Alessa swallowed hard. “Wet. And so good.”
“My fingers stroke,” he murmured quietly. “They stroke you from the back of your pussy straight up to the clit. Do you know why I like doing that so much?”
“No.”
“Because you shake, Lissa. Your pussy fucking quivers from me. I love seeing all your juices smearing all over the pink lips of your pussy as I stroke you and touch you. And when I taste you? Fuck, when I taste you, it makes it even fucking better. I’ve got all of you to clean then. Every single drop, baby, I like to lick it all off. I love the way you taste in my mouth and how it keeps on coming the more I lick.”
Alessa shuddered, still running her fingers over her sex. “I want to touch.”
“Please do.”
Her fingers skipped under the gusset of her thong to find the silky lips of her pussy wet and hot to the touch. She was tender as her digits glided through her labia over and over, dragging her arousal around her slit and up to her clit.
“Let me guess,” Adriano whispered. “You’re burning up down there, your little clit is hard against your finger, and you’re wetter than you thought.”
“Yes.”
“Fucking beautiful.”
“You can’t see,” Alessa said, licking her lips and still holding the phone tight to her ear with a shaking hand. “You can’t see me at all.”
“I don’t have to, baby. I’ve got every fucking inch of you memorized. I’ve seen all the spots on you, I’ve touched them, and tasted them, and Christ … You’re in me, now, Lissa. I can’t get you out if I fucking tried.”
“God.”
“Love your sounds,” Adriano said.
She swore there was a hint of smug satisfaction in his words.
“Are you grinning?” she asked.
“Very much. And stroking my cock, thinking about your pretty mouth being wrapped around it. Shit, do you know what you look like when you suck my dick, Alessa? Amazing. So fucking sexy. I love it when your lips are painted red and
they’re wet with my come. You stain me all over and I can’t get that nonsense off no matter how hard I scrub.”
Good God.
That was wicked.
Filthy sinful.
Alessa loved it.
“Fuck yourself with your fingers,” Adriano said, softer than before. “You must be wanting it bad by now. I bet your juices are just flooding your fingers, needing it. I want to hear all the sounds that come out of your mouth while you do.”
“How hard are you?” Alessa asked, pressing two fingers deep into her pussy.
Her inner walls hugged her digits hard. She couldn’t believe how turned on her body was but it shouldn’t have been a surprise. Adriano had always done this for her—he’d always been the only fucking one for her.
Alessa’s fingers working her pussy certainly weren’t Adriano’s. He knew her body better than even she did. While her digits were slender and graceful, his were long and nimble, knowing how to make every little stroke and press send her flying higher toward a precipice of bliss.
“I need to know,” Alessa added quietly, a whimper breaking past her trembling lips. “Tell me how hard you are.”
“So hard. Swollen even. I need to come,” Adriano said huskily. “I’d love to shoot my load down your throat, but this is good, too. And I’d really like to do it hearing you call my name, Lissa. Make that a reality and fast.”
“Oh, my God.”
Alessa couldn’t have stopped if she tried. Adriano’s filthy mouth and quiet demands were enough to make Alessa work her sex a little faster. Harder strokes inside her pussy and then quicker circles on her clit until her thighs burned and shook. The beginning whispers of her orgasm crawled across her skin, promising bliss. She twisted in the bed, her thighs clamping around her hand and still holding the phone tight.
“So close … so close, Adriano.”
“Fuck, yeah. Those sounds are going to kill me, Lissa.”
Even his voice had turned rough. Harsh whooshes of his breaths crackled in the speaker.
Alessa came hard, gasping for air and trying to muffle the sound all the same.
Adriano’s gravelly groan followed close behind. “Shit, shit, shit.”
Sighing, Alessa turned back on the bed and squeezed her eyes shut. “Okay … that was a great way to let me know you got your phone back.”
Adriano’s laughter filled the phone. “Yeah?”
“So good.”
